


Crawls Like a Worm from a Bird

by feverbeats



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 20:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feverbeats/pseuds/feverbeats
Summary: It doesn't seem fair for Venom to be able to hear Eddie's thoughts and feel his feelings when Eddie can't always do the same. But maybe he's just not attuned enough to it. He can sometimes feel this vital, bright frisson of fear when he's sick or hurt or angry, and he definitely knows when Venom is pissed.





	Crawls Like a Worm from a Bird

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MGVR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MGVR/gifts).



**_EDDIE_ **

The thing about having Venom in him (that sounds bad--wait, no, actually it sounds exactly how it is), is that he's still got to do all the normal person things, too. He's still a journalist, although right now he's just doing vlogs and hoping somebody actually decides to pay him. Then again, that might mean going to work sometimes, and Venom is completely baffled by work.

Venom makes people stare at him, but maybe Eddie is a good person for this whole thing to happen to, because people have been assuming he was a crazy homeless person for years (and sometimes he has been a crazy homeless person--nothing wrong with it. Some of his best friends are homeless and/or crazy).

It's not all negative, anyway. Venom is so good for his self-esteem. He makes Eddie eat enough and work out and get up off the floor when he tries to lie there for more than an hour. Eddie's never had such a good roommate before (if that's what Venom is. Roommate, bodymate, headmate. Just mate.).

Tonight they're just having a quiet night in. They haven't had human food in about ten hours, and they haven't had Venom food in longer than that, so right now they're waiting for Chinese food to be delivered.

Eddie pulls up his banking app and swears. Shouldn't have ordered that food. He's not overdrawn, but he's not going to be able to make rent this month. Not unless he sells an actual story.

He feels a wave of confused anger from Venom, so he checks in.

"Yeah, what's up?"

**What are you worrying about?**

Eddie learned pretty fast that Venom could read what he was thinking. There are certain things that Venom just doesn't get, though, like money. It's one thing to hear Eddie's thoughts and another to understand the concepts behind them.

"Nothing," he says. "Rent."

Silence, maybe as Venom tries to understand what the problem is. **Why don't we just eat the rentlord when he comes?**

"Rentlord? That's not--" Eddie laughs incredulously. "Yeah, we can't just do that. We need to sell a story or something." It's really easy to just say we. Venom does it a lot, too. It's not like they really do things separately.

**But why do we have to pay rent?**

Venom's face and neck emerge from Eddie's shoulder. To be honest, Eddie really likes it when Venom manifests like that. He's soft and warm and not as gooey and Eddie would have expected.

"We need to a lot of things you don't like," Eddie says. "That's just life." He says it without a lot of enthusiasm, though. There's not a _great_ reason to pay rent.

Their food shows up, and Eddie freaks out the delivery guy because Venom isn't fully stuffed back in. Just another time that's happened.

After they eat--and Venom totally enjoys the chicken fingers--Eddie sits at the table and tries to think of the best way to actually get paid.

He spends his time after dinner trying and failing to meditate. He can't make himself lie down, and he keeps thinking he might have a panic attack. He realizes way too late that he's bugging Venom. He's been drumming his fingers on the edge of the table in an anrhymical way, probably because he's anxious, and he didn't pick up right away on how Venom has started to seethe.

"What?" he says, startled by the vehement rage in his chest. He's not sure for a second if it's his or Venom's. Venom would probably say there's not a difference.

 **You're wallowing,** Venom says. He emerges again (but still, always tethered to Eddie). "Turn on your Twitter and find a story."

"You don't _turn on_ Twitter," Eddie says, just for the sake of arguing. The weight of Venom on his shoulder is irritating rather than comforting, right now. "I'm doing it."

He pulls out his phone and scrolls until he finds something interesting. There are certain types of problems nobody but he and Venom can really handle--it's not like the Avengers operate on the West Coast or anything.

There's a whole Twitter Moment about some guy who's dressed up like a scorpion, going around doing crime. From the blurry cell phone photos, Eddie isn't sure it's a costume.

"You're right. It looks like something from a lab," Venom says.

It doesn't seem fair for Venom to be able to hear Eddie's thoughts and feel his feelings when Eddie can't always do the same. But maybe he's just not attuned enough to it. He can sometimes feel this vital, bright frisson of fear when he's sick or hurt or angry, and he definitely knows when Venom is pissed.

"Wait until we're hungry again," Venom says. It sounds so reasonable when he says it like that. "We'll take care of two problems."

Turns out there _is_ ethical consumption under late capitalism.

Three hours later, they're tied up in the back of a van. It's two in the morning, Eddie's cell phone is a few miles back, and the scorpion driving probably wants to kill him. There are people who don't do journalism this way, maybe.

"Hey, Venom?" Eddie says, testing.

He can feel Venom, antsy and rebellious. **You said wait. You said.**

Eddie tries to struggle around until he's sitting up, but he's tied too tightly. "Yeah, and I thought maybe I could get a decent recording of this thing. Who knew it could drive?" Who knew a scorpion would be full-on kidnapping them?

Eddie's about to ask Venom to come out and untie him when the truck stops.

**Eddie.**

Venom says Eddie's name every other thing. It's driving him nuts. It's too personal, if an alien living in your body can be too personal.

 **Eddie, someone's coming. Someone for us to eat.** Not the scorpion, then. Probably a human.

Eddie doesn't have time to think about it, because Venom takes over his body, throwing black tendrils everywhere, and smashes through the back of the van. Eddie can see and feel everything that's happening, but as always, he's just a passenger, like he's watching it happened from inside a padded suit. It feels incredibly safe, like nothing else ever has.

So when Venom eats the two armed thugs' heads, Eddie doesn't even feel that weird about it. He's pretty much accepted certain things. Every relationship is a trade-off, right?

**_VENOM_ **

Venom is learning quickly, sopping up human popular culture. The more intricate details are harder. It's not as if Venom's feelings are all that different form Eddie's, but the cultural context is wholly alien.

Human language is so difficult. There are so many singulars to navigate. It takes Venom some time to realize that Eddie doesn't mean anything by it when he says "I" instead of "we." Venom knows they are a we. But every host is different, too. Venom couldn't have stayed with Anne, for instance. They weren't bonded correctly. With other hosts, Venom knows it's possibly to achieve a perfect symbiosis, with the host and the symbiote truly being one.

Venom doesn't have that with Eddie. With Eddie, it's something better. Eddie uses all kinds of words for what their unit is; partners is one that Venom likes.

But tonight, Eddie is distant. He gets moody sometimes for reasons that Venom doesn't understand. His emotions are nuanced in ways Venom's aren’t. It's either a human thing or an Eddie thing. Anne was a lot more straightforward.

After they break out of the truck, Venom leaps on top of it. The thing Eddie thinks of as the Scorpion is toppling out of the driver's seat, tail flailing. It doesn't move like something that's comfortable with its body. Maybe it's a new thing, a baby. It's organic, except for the tail. Venom can smell it.

 _Easy, easy, I don't know if we can eat that,_ Eddie says, as if he knows better than Venom.

The Scorpion stares up at Venom perched on the van. "What the fuck is that?" It sounds like a human, like Eddie. Maybe even a human who speaks in the same strange way Eddie does, and not like all the humans around them. _A New York accent,_ Eddie says.

The Scorpion doesn't seem too bright. It edges around the van, looking for its henchmen. When it sees their headless bodies, Venom expects it to recoil in horror, but it just says, "Huh." It peers into the back of the van. "Where's--"

Venom leaps off the van, landing in front of the Scorpion, becoming huge and humanoid. "We escaped your shitty prison," Venom says, using Eddie's language.

"That was _you_?" the Scorpion says. "You didn't come at me like this before."

"Lucky you," Venom says. Without even checking for Eddie's agreement, they swing a huge fist at the Scorpion.

The Scorpion takes the punch better than Venom expected, but it stumbles. "So that's how it's gonna be? Okay. Just remember, you started this."

The Scorpion's tail whips toward them, just like it did before they were thrown in the van. Eddie dodged it that time, and Venom is even faster. Eddie is shouting in their head, but Eddie always does that. It's very distracting.

Venom makes their hands into fists and drives them into the ground, making the Scorpion stumble again. They think that the Scorpion is about to turn and run, and they roar with triumph. But this time, Venom isn't fast enough. The Scorpion is turning, but not to run. The tip of its tail pierces their shoulder. It goes through their gelatinous body without injuring it, but something is wrong. Eddie is shouting even more, shouting their name.

Venom finds that they're having trouble moving or changing shape. It's hard to make sense of the words Eddie is shouting.

 _He's got Venom in his tail!_ Eddie sounds panicked, which is making Venom panic. They're sharing the adrenaline. _I mean--not_ you _Venom. Poison in his tail._

Venom can tell that, because they're collapsing in on themself, into a black, wriggling mass, struggling for form. Before it's possible to make sense of it, the Scorpion is scooping them up and carrying them back to the van. It sets Venom down in the back and looks at them.

"What are you? You're that thing I've seen on the news, aren't you?" Eddie thinks the words _Science experiment._ Venom can feel the pricks of interest in what created this creature, in amidst the fear.

"We are Venom," Venom says. Their voice doesn't sound as strong as it should.

"Right," the Scorpion says. "I saw that. You jam yourself up people's asses and control them like pod people."

"We give them power," Venom says, offended.

There's a long silence while the Scorpion appears to consider that. Eddie is babbling in their shared head. It's just frustrating and distracting.

"I want that," the Scorpion finally says, hungrily. Venom recognizes that hunger. Lives that hunger. They feel a twinge, as if their cells are reaching out, testing whether this is the next host. Hosts are for using up and moving on from.

But Eddie is more than a host now, and their connection is not that of a parasite and a host. Venom is not moving on.

"We are not for you to have," Venom snaps.

"Not both of you," the Scorpion says. "Just you. The goo." It reaches for Venom.

 _Get back in!_ Eddie shouts inside, and the panic in his voice is enough to make Venom retreat, melting back into Eddie's body. Eddie doesn't want them to be apart either. But now Venom is moving even more slowly, and although it's possible to reabsorb, Eddie is left paralyzed.

"Well, this is a bad day," Eddie says miserably. His lips aren't even moving well.

"You're going to turn back and I'm going to take it," the Scorpion says.

 **I could,** Venom says. **I could come back out. But I wouldn't be able to move.**

"D-don't do that," Eddie says. His teeth are chattering. Something bad is happening in their body. "He'll peel you off and throw you in a jar. Let me just figure this out."

Venom would love to say that it's easy to get out of a jar, but with the paralytic agent, it could be more complicated. Venom is stuck waiting inside for their weak human body to figure something out.

**_EDDIE_ **

**Eddie!**

The word blares in Eddie's head, so loud it makes his throbbing headache even worse. "Huh?"

Eddie, we're in trouble.

He tries to untangle if Venom means himself, Eddie, or the whole package deal. "What?" he says.

**WAKE UP!**

"I'm awake!" Eddie tries to say, but the words won't come out, for some reason. He can't get his eyes to focus. Everything's all dark and blurry. He definitely got hit on the head, so there's a concussion involved, but what else? It slowly dawns on him that Venom should be healing him right about now.

Then he remembers what the hell's happening. He can't remember if he passed out from the poison or because the Scorpion hit him. He blinks again, and his eyes focus enough that he can see where they are. It is definitely a meat freezer.

Eddie would say it's like something out of a horror movie, but his life already was.

"Hey Venom?" That's what Eddie tries to say, but his lips are so numb that it doesn't come out right. Venom should be able to hear it in his head, though. He's realizing he's not hurt as badly as he thought, but that the cold is a much worse problem.

He rolls into a sitting position and wraps his arms around his knees. The poison must be wearing off, because he's able to move a little. His hands are so cold he can hardly feel them. He drags his sleeves further down, but they don't stay. He's shaking so hard he can't keep still. His fingers are white.

**Our fingers.**

_Our fingers,_ Eddie agrees in his head. _Which means this is gonna kill you, too. I'm fucking sorry for that._

Venom doesn't answer. For a moment, Eddie wonders if he's just that mad, or if he's dying already. "Venom?" It comes out all slurred.

 **We die together** , Venom says.

 _Can I at least see you?_ Eddie thinks at him. His eyes prickle with tears, but they're freezing on his lashes, making his vision blur.

Venom snakes out of Eddie, sluggish and drooping. "Just for a second. We're being watched."

The door opens. It's the Scorpion, minus the tail. So that's not a part of him. Venom is gone, back inside Eddie by the time the Scorpion crosses the room.

"Hey, man," Eddie tries to say. It's still slurred. "Where's your ass?" He giggles, unable to stop himself.

"Huh? Oh, fuck you," the guy says. "I don't wear that thing all the time."

"What's your name?" Eddie asks. "I need it for my article." He's getting a little warmer. The Scorpion left the door open.

"Not like it matters, since you're gonna die either way. It's Mac."

That doesn't even sound like a real name. Mac is what criminals in cartoons are called. Before Eddie can comment on that, he's being dragged out of the meat freezer into what looks--and smells--like an abandoned slaughterhouse, which makes sense.

"Thanks for the change of scene," Eddie says viciously.

"Yeah, this is just the start," Mac says.

Eddie is just starting to be able to feel his fingers again when Mac leans down and sticks him with a needle.

"What the fuck?" Eddie demands. His heart is pounding.

"More venom," Mac says, shrugging. "I don't want you getting away."

This isn't good. Mac wants Venom. Mac knows Venom can move in and out of Eddie when he's paralyzed. So Mac just needs--

"Hey, monster?" Mac says.

"Venom," Eddie spits. His lips are going numb again, this time from the toxin.

"Sure," Mac says. He looks at Eddie as if he's looking right through him. "I figured the meat freezer would be enough to draw you out. I'm gonna make this real simple for you: I'm going to kill this asshole who followed me. If you don't want to die with him, come out out so I can have you."

"Idiot," Eddie says. "Venom can just heal me."

"Then I guess we're gonna find out how much pain you two can put up with before that's a deal breaker," Mac says.

Then Mac punches Eddie full in the face.

Eddie gets hit a lot, just in general. He's been hit in a fun way (like with Anne, and okay, it's not like Venom has never hit him in the face with a tentacle at a sensitive moment), and he's been hit by people on the subway because they're jerks, and he's been hit a _ton_ since this whole thing with Venom started, but this is worse. He's mostly paralyzed, and Venom is raging in his head, and he really thinks he might die.

 **Eddie,** Venom says urgently. **We can't heal. The poison won't let us.**

Mac must realize the same thing, because he laughs and hits Eddie again.

 _So just wait until I think of a way out of it,_ Eddie thinks right back. _Any chance you can give the guy what he wants and then rip him apart from the inside?_

There's a nasty silence. Mac laughs and punches Eddie, and Eddie feels hot blood running down his face from his eyebrow and nose.

A few more punches--this guy really knows how to hit--and Eddie's spitting blood. Well, he's more drooling blood.

 _Venom,_ he says, testing.

**If I bond with him…**

Then Mac breaks one of Eddie's fingers and Eddie almost passes out screaming. His vision is white and his head is on fire. He can't think enough to talk to Venom.

"Give me my monster," Mac says patiently. "I want to do that stuff."

 **Eddie.** There's an edge of panic in Venom's voice. **It's different with everyone. My relationship with him would be different, even if he was a match. I would be him and he would be me and we would be Venom. Do you understand? We might not be able to protect you.**

Maybe Eddie should have asked more about this sooner. Alien biology is beyond him. His finger is screaming with pain and every time he moves he almost throws up on himself.

 _I don't know what to do,_ he tells Venom.

**_VENOM_ **

**Eddie. Eddie!**

Venom feels panic, like nothing this shared body has experienced before. Maybe when Riot almost killed Eddie. But this time, Venom isn't strong enough to heal Eddie. The poison is paralyzing them.

Part of Eddie's fragile human body-- _their_ body--break, one after another. Three fingers are broken. Eddie is gagging and spitting human bodily fluids everywhere. The other human, Mac, is laughing.

It would be so easy for Venom to come out and let Mac do what he wanted. Mac's enormous desire for power is attractive, in a way. Venom can tell that Mac has at least the potential to be a good host.

But Venom doesn't want another host. Venom wants Eddie. Venom has never felt the way they feel with Eddie, both individual and together, and they don't know if Eddie would survive without them. What they have with Eddie is true symbiosis, not just physical, but emotional as well. Venom wouldn't have said that was important or even known it existed a few months ago.

Mac has his scorpion tail on again, and he's periodically giving Venom another dose of the paralyzing agent.

 **Eddie,** Venom says. Eddie isn't answering. He's lying on his side now. Venom can feel that their body is injured and their vital signs are not right, but they can't do anything about it. All Venom could do is flee the body, and Eddie would still be hurt.

**Eddie.**

"What's up?" Eddie mutters. His cheek stuck to the floor with blood. Venom can smell it.

Mac digs his boot into Eddie's ribs and turns him over so he's lying face up. Venom can see Mac's face through Eddie's eyes. He looks like a predator. The way Riot was.

 **If I leave this body, I'll still be paralyzed,** Venom says. **He'll put me inside him. But I can try to fight it…**

 _Not like we have another choice,_ Eddie says, just as Mac's foot comes down on his face. He cries out, and Venom can feel blood and tears pouring from his face. _Their_ face. No matter what anybody says, it's theirs.

Holding onto that thought, Venom comes out of Eddie, manifesting sluggishly. Still paralyzed.

Mac laughs in triumph and pulls Venom off Eddie. Eddie lets out a low, keening groan of loss. Venom understands.

Venom can't move, but it is possible to assimilate into a body, which is necessary after all the damage. Venom melts into Mac almost immediately, ignoring his twitching and shouting.

He feels so different from Eddie, but yes, he's a fit. Venom and Mac could be an _us_. A violent, brutal, uncomplex us. Venom fills up all the corners of Mac, feeling him out. Mac's frightened, but he doesn't have the imagination to be very frightened.

Venom can feel Eddie looking at them. They can feel how badly Mac still wants to hurt him. The two of them, Venom-and-Mac-who-are-Venom, lunge for him, crushing his ankle. To Eddie, it will look like Venom is doing it.

Eddie sobs out a curse and tries to drag himself away, but he's still mostly paralyzed. Venom reaches out long tendrils and tugs Eddie's head back, jamming more tendrils down his throat to choke him. The body he's in is excited by this. Eddie chokes and sobs and bleeds.

Venom keeps taking Eddie apart, cutting him with Mac's knife, smothering him. Eventually, Mac wants to raise the tail and sting Eddie again. Venom does not, so they don't.

Eddie is bleeding and begging. "Please, please," he keeps saying. "Please, love, pelase, don't."

Mac's revulsion rolls through them, alongside Venom's rage at Mac. They want to tear out of this body. But not yet.

They keep beating Eddie. He keeps begging. There's now blood all over the floor, and Eddie isn't talking. He is crying, though. Mac feels a surge of triumph, still laced with disgust. Venom thinks about how frequently Mac stung Eddie with the tail before, and about how Eddie's legs are moving. Not so stiff anymore.

Venom tenses and rips out of Mac's body, darting out tendrils to tear away the scorpion tail. But there's something more important. Venom swarms across the floor and melts back into Eddie's damaged body.

While Mac is cursing and getting his bearings, Venom pours into Eddie, clicking their bones back into place, replenishing their blood. It's a slower process than usual, but they're not paralyzed anymore. Then Venom is outside and Eddie is in, wrapped in Venom. Venom is huge and strong and leaping for Mac.

Mac gives a strangled cry, grabs his tail, and runs for the door. Venom starts after him, but they're slowed by the remaining poison and the fading injuries.

 _Wait,_ Eddie says in Venom's head. _Wait, wait._

"We're going after him," Venom pants with rage.

 _No!_ Eddie shouts in their head. _No, I just want to go home. I don't know if we can take him, and I don't, I can't, it's too fucking much, okay?_

Venom doesn't accept that. They want to chase after Mac and kill him, tear his head from his body, scatter the pieces--

 _Please,_ Eddie says, and he sounds so frightened and exhausted and Venom stops.

"All right, Eddie," they say. "Time to go home."

**_EDDIE_ **

Eddie is never going to be alone again, not for one second of his lousy life. And sometimes that's annoying, or confusing, or it makes him look crazy in public, but he wouldn't trade it for anything. Someone's always got his back now.

He's back in his apartment. The rent still isn't paid, but who knows, maybe they _will_ eat the rentlord.

Eddie's still exhausted, mentally and physically. All his injuries have healed, thanks to Venom, but some part of him is still catching up. They're on the couch together. The TV isn't on. They're just sitting quietly.

"Are you angry?" Venom's head, bopping on Eddie's shoulder, asks.

Eddie thinks about it. "Nah. I mean, you explained it. I didn't know it worked like that." He's quiet, working through that. "I guess I'm more thinking about what that means for...right now. Do you just like me because you kind of _are_ me?"

"It's more complicated than that, and you're being emotional," Venom says. "We are Eddie and Venom, and together we are Venom."

Eddie doesn't totally know what that means, but he thinks he understands the sentiment behind it. More important, he saw what Venom did for him. "Okay, then we're fine."

Venom's tendrils wrap around Eddie almost tenderly. Eddie presses his face into Venom until it's swallowed up by blackness. He can feel the tendrils boxing him in, holding him steady and pressing against his back.

He plays back his favorite meditation tape in his mind, like he's the Hulk or something. He knows all about stuff like weighted blankets and he knows that's how he's using Venom. Even as he thinks about it, he can feel Venom prodding curiously at his mind, trying to understand.

" _You good?_ " Eddie mutters into the wall of goo.

"We're good."

Eddie removes his face from the goo and looks at Venom. He's still attached to Eddie in several places, though, bleeding out of his wrists in thick black strings. Eddie's wrists tingle, and he can feel himself slipping into a half-meditative daze.

"We're gonna keep doing that stuff, y'know," he mutters.

"Yes," Venom agrees.

"Maybe go after Tony Stark next."

Venom's tendrils brush down Eddie's back, pressing and stroking. It's a little bit sexy, but mostly it makes him feel contained and grounded. He's dizzy. He shuts his eyes and lets Venom hold him up.

He wakes up an hour later. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep. Venom is still there, wrapped all around him, pressing him down into the couch.

"Venom?" Eddie says.

"Yes, Eddie."

Eddie shuts his eyes again, satisfied.


End file.
